There is of course vast fun to be had in considering this story of Donald Trump and his varied swordsman activities. Who doesn’t like to gossip, after all? But as a political manoeuvre of any type it’s going to be pretty useless. Consenting adults having sex isn’t illegal, a married man cheating isn’t either. And the thought that a porn star might have sex with a guy isn’t really all that far beyond an event we can imagine, is it?
Thus we’ve something much more interesting, something in Salon that might in fact be true:
Donald Trump’s opponents have long been waiting for some sort of scandal to bring him down, and they may think they have finally found it in pornographic film star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels alleges she had an extramarital affair with Donald Trump in 2006 and was subsequently paid off by a Trump lawyer to stay silent during the presidential election. These types of charges, if proven true, have felled many politicians in the past.
But Trump’s opponents probably shouldn’t get their hopes up.
Quite. The hopes up part that is. For having a contract with someone not to talk about events is legal. Having sex with a consenting adult is legal. And that’s about it really, isn’t it? There are no other allegations here.
Even the more recent revelations don’t in fact reveal anything else:
In a new report for The New Yorker, Ronan Farrow details an alleged affair Donald Trump had with former Playboy Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal, saying, among other things, that McDougal and the future president had sex during a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006.
This would be would be the same Lake Tahoe weekend that, according to other reports, Trump also allegedly began his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, is said to have tried to entice adult-film star Alana Evans into a threesome and allegedly tried to force his attentions on a third porn star, Jessica Drake.
Actually, we might start thinking that Trump really does have enough energy to run the country. Rather brings to mind an old story about Palmerston and Disraeli. Palmerston was pretty old, rather more of a Georgian rake than a good little Victorian, Disraeli was running against him (British politics doesn’t quite work that way given the indirect election of the Prime Minister but think of it that way). A rumour turned up that Palmerston had fathered a child with a servant and Disraeli was asked whether it should be leaked. No came the answer, if they know he’s energetic enough still to be able to do that then he’ll sweep the country.
What we’re left with here is that Good Time Billionaire, fond of the bling to a ridiculous extent, has sex with good looking women he’s not married to.
OK, there might be the occasional church minister or maiden aunt who won’t like this – although given recorded proclivities maybe the Southern Baptist ministry would be right behind him if they were uglier. Everyone else is either going to shrug their shoulders or try to suppress a twinge or two of jealousy.
For this is the way the modern world works now. We’ve gone through an entirely welcome social change. Sex is up to the participants, not the society in general to police. Consenting adults get to do as consenting adults wish to do and that’s the end of that. We can’t now turn around and demand that The Donald has to obey the old rules just because, can we?
It’s not even as if this should come as a surprise. He’s been known for decades for chasing anything in a skirt, hasn’t he?
The real amusement here is watching those like Ronan Farrow chasing this matter so eagerly. Large parts of the press corps are just certain that this will bring him down. But in modern America having sex with good looking women just isn’t something that does bring down a politician. Sending d**k pictures to teenagers, yes, chasing the Congressional pages, yes. But consenting adults bumping uglies? It’s news and great gossip but not a career killer anymore. For we have actually had that sexual revolution, haven’t we?
Yes, this is win-win for Trump. If these anecdotes are true, it’s a “meh” with a wink and grin. If they’re not true, then the anti-Trumpers continue to look like idiots.
Those that believe Trump plays five-dimensional chess will be thinking he set this all up in anticipation of a run.
This would have brought down a conventional Republican, say a Bush or a Romney, because it contradicts their image and thus would make them appear dishonest. It won’t hurt Trump because it doesn’t contradict his image and was priced in with his election.
Ahh, Trump’s glorious days as a Democrat.
‘Trump was a regiserted Democrat from August 2001 through September 2009.’
And behaved like one this week, which is what will really do him in.
Not if he uses the military budget to build the wall.
Tim,
You forgot to mention that having sex in the Oval Office is also legal.
After more than three decades of conducting business in the good old USA I suspect the last thing likely to worry Donald Trump is a renaissance of Victorian morality.
He has made a far bigger mistake in signing Pelosi’s 2000 page POS. He should have veto’d just on the grounds that no fucker had even read it. Americans over there–could a President order the Scumgress to send over only short, clear Bills and stop the “paperclip” caper of shoving all shorts of shite in Bills that have nothing to do with the shite in question? Of course they could send nothing else but 2000 bogrolls so he would have veto ALL the Bills. But then–as Congress was playing silly buggers –would he not be able to could claim EO… Read more »
Agreed. Trump called it ridiculous – then signed it. Threw away the only leverage he had.
Schumer wanted a “short, clear Bill” – amnesty for his “Dreamers” (until an Obamoid judge rules it is lack of Due Process to deny them the vote too), which served no one other than the vote-fraud industry. Republicans wanted actual measures to avoid a recurrence of the problem: Border wall, end chain migration, end migration by dice-roll. This complicates the bill, but in fact nothing moves through Congress unless it contains ingredients that let all Congressmen tell their constituents they got enough to vote the package through. Before long the favor-traders add sections conferring private benefit too. You want a… Read more »
Then veto the fucking lot until it changes and go for rule by EO or emergency powers. Having a bunch of leftist scum who are also fucking crooks as your lawmakers IS an emergency in my book. Yes–that would be just what leftshite keep saying he wants. But if he used the power to smash the Swamp and then set matters aright and go leaving a system that can’t get back to the way it was before another 100 years of corruption have gone by–that would be a worthwhile legacy. As it is the system is set to ensure the… Read more »
Please delete “could” from the last line.
BiND,
Wasn’t a great deal of legalistic gynmastics gone through over the exact definition of “sex” and whether or not what Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky were getting up to, qualified as such as far as the enquiry was concerned?
Yes, indeed, there is no chance of Trump being forced out over another sex scandal. This, like Mueller, as all about weakening Trump for an eventual impeachment, say after Mueller trips him up in his I’ve Got Nothing To Hide interview. We’ve already seen how trivially easy it is to make Republicans disavow him (in my state, the statewide newspaper and the two most recent Republican U.S. Senators). Republicans have no current strategy except to portray the doddering fascist Nancy Pelosi as equally loathsome. Trump is at much larger risk of negotiating and “winning” a Deal after forgetting the concepts… Read more »
I see that the BBC are reporting this morning that Ms Daniels had been “threatened with violence” if she didn’t shut up. Am I the only cynic to think that it’s more likely to be a Dem “false flag” operation than anything Trump-inspired? If a sex scandal isn’t working, try something else?
Lucky it wasn’t Billyboy she wasn’t fucking.
She would have been dead for years by now and her norks decayed to dust.
Earlier this year, she released a film called “Stormy Trumps All”. She is using the trumpophobic media to publicise it and doing rather well. When was the last time a porn star was pictured in the I?